Steve Cooper walked off shaking his head and puffing out his cheeks, his despair plain to see. Nottingham Forest caused mayhem at Anfield but a self-destructive streak at set-pieces ruined any hope their display generated for the fight against relegation. Liverpool accepted the gifts gratefully to rack up the 100th home league win of Jürgen Klopp’s reign.
An 11th game without a win left Forest second from bottom and their manager a picture of simmering frustration. A valuable point was tantalisingly close against a Liverpool team unable to cope with Moussa Niakhaté’s long throws and taking evasive defensive action in the closing stages. Their own inability to defend set-pieces cost them.
Liverpool scored from three to move to within six points of fourth-placed Newcastle. Diogo Jota struck twice for the second game in succession, having gone a year without a goal previously. Forest levelled on both occasions through former Liverpool defender Neco Williams and Morgan Gibbs-White, scoring twice on the road for the first time in the Premier League this season. It was not enough. Mohamed Salah converted a Trent Alexander-Arnold free-kick to move level with Robbie Fowler at sixth on Liverpool’s all-time goalscorers’ chart. Forest came back once more and almost equalised for a third time when substitute Brennan Johnson struck the crossbar. Hence the torment on Cooper’s face when he headed for the tunnel.
“The result and conceding three again add to the negative run we are on,” said the Forest manager. “But looking at the game in isolation the huge frustration for me is we have conceded three goals from set pieces. They were all really avoidable. It was always going to be an incredibly tough game. To have minimised Liverpool to very few chances from open play tells me we have done some decent things but we lost, and that’s the be all and end all.”
It was almost 25 years since Forest last played a league game at Anfield. Their raucous fans marked the occasion with a fine tribute to the 97 Liverpool supporters who were unlawfully killed at Hillsborough due to gross negligence by South Yorkshire police. At 3.06pm, the time the FA Cup semi-final between the two clubs was halted in 1989, Forest fans unveiled a huge banner that read: “Respect the 97. Solidarity with Survivors. No To Tragedy Chanting.” Anfield responded with warm applause all round.
A tedious first half was quickly forgotten amid a flurry of goals, end-to-end entertainment and terrible defending after the restart. Set-pieces were Liverpool’s greatest threat all afternoon. Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konaté, Cody Gakpo and Jota all went close from free-kicks or corners before the interval, although the hosts’ dominance of possession failed to translate into clear-cut opportunity.
That changed two minutes into the second half when an Alexander-Arnold corner struck Niakhaté on the chest and rebounded to Fabinho. The midfielder headed back across goal for Jota to nod home from two yards out.
Forest were soon level when Liverpool were prised open by a routine Niakhaté throw down the line that Taiwo Awoniyi turned inside to Gibbs-White. The playmaker released the advancing Williams on the right and the Wales international’s low drive beat Alisson via a deflection off Andy Robertson’s shins. Williams kept his celebrations in check against his former club.
The visitors fell asleep at a Robertson free-kick moments later, enabling Jota to receive the delivery on the penalty spot, chest, turn and volley beyond Keylor Navas before any defender came near him. Only Bournemouth have conceded more goals from set-pieces this season than Cooper’s team, but they levelled again when another Niakhaté throw caused panic inside the Liverpool area. Gibbs-White volleyed Felipe’s flick on into the bottom corner via slight deflections off both Konaté and Alexander-Arnold.
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Forest let parity slip through their fingers once again when Salah easily held off Remo Freuler to steer Alexander-Arnold’s free-kick beyond Navas. Liverpool held on nervously, Johnson hitting the bar after escaping behind Konaté and lobbing Alisson, to leave their manager toasting his century of Anfield league wins with obvious relief.
“Their throws created a proper mess, we were not prepared well enough for them,” admitted Klopp. “But I saw some top counter-pressing, we are much clearer in that department now, and defensively we have something to build on. It feels like the first time this season to me, that we have that, and now we have to use it. Hopefully it is not too late.”
